Aggressive Platy?

[lodyandruss]

Hey all, hope you can help, we're a bit worried here!

We got 6 glowing tetra three weeks ago to start our tropical aquarium. They resisted well and even grew, so we're very happy.
We wanted a bit of colour and something begineer-friendly so we read about platy, which seemed like a good option.
Now we got 3 platys and we fear that might have been our mistake.
One of them (the biggest) is permanently chasing a smaller one. When not chasing, it's blocking that other fish in corners, behind plants etc. The smaller fish does not seem too stressed right now but we fear it might end up hiding permanently.
From what we read, the 3 fishes seem to be male, and the 3rd one is having no problem at all. The tetras are peaceful and colourful so we suspect all is well here.
What would you advise? Is 3 an odd number which causes problems?
Any help very welcome.. thanks so much!

 

[lilfishie]

Welcome to the forum

if your certain your 3 are males then usually we reccomend at least 5, i have 5 males theres the odd chase from the dominant one but its spread between the other 4 so no one gets the full blow.

what size tank do you have?

also how did you cycle it?

 

[LadyRiv.]

i have male platys and one was bullied by another platy. at that time i had 3 platys. i bought another 3 but unfortunately the platy that's been bullied died the same day. my current stock is 5 platys and no problems at all now.

i would suggest to get more platys and plenty of plants so they have a place to hide.

 

[lodyandruss]

Thanks for the info.

We only have a small tank for now (25L)- doing some work in the house and getting a bigger aquarium so we've been advised to start small to get some practice.

Sorry, I am not sure what you mean by cycle it. We had the tetras for 2.5 weeks and then introduced the platys all at once (they come from the same aquarium at the merchant). I hope that's what you wanted to know.

I wonder if 5 might not be too much, since we have tetras in the tank too (5).
I'll try to get some pictures tonight so you can confirm whether they're all male

 

[Gilli]

You say in the other forum that 'We're lucky to have a very good profesional supplier nearby that helps us a lot,' clearly he has given you no information at all. Your tank is not cycled - that means that you have not grown the bacteria needed inside your filter that make the toxins that your fish produce harmless. Without this bacteria (which ideally should be grown first before adding fish and takes between 4-6 weeks) your fish are swimming in a toxic soup which will damage and kill them.

Please get a freshwater API liquid test kit to test the toxic levels of your water . You will need to do this every day sometimes a few times a day and make large water chages every day until your tank is cycled to dilute the toxic levels. Do a 90% water change immediately as the toxins will be very high.

Read up on cycling a tank with fish in on the link ive given you below which will explain the process in detail and inform you how keep your fish from suffering and alive.

cycling a tank

As for your platies some are bullies and will harass and stress out other fish resulting in their death - you will have to keep an eye on him and if hes a threat to the others ask the fish shop if you can return him, because if more plants dont work nothing will cure him of his bullying ways - trust me - ive had one!.

 

[lodyandruss]

Thanks for your answer.
Sorry, I did ask previously what was meant for "cycling" as I was not sure it was refering to the tank or the fished. Apologies for not being up to speed yet with the terminology.
As now you've explained, we have "cycled" the tank, it has been running empty for over 6 weeks prior to introducing the tetras and the toxins levels are being checked every week and are now fine.
The only thing we have not had advise on is whether 3 platys would be an OK number. You have now confirmed that some are just bullies. Thanks

 

[Gilli]

No need for any apologies - we are all beginners at first and there is a lot to learn from scratch! Glad to hear your tank is cycled and that you know how to read your water stats.

You could try upping the numbers of the platies if hes not too aggressive as that would mean the others not being chased so often as it would be spread amongst them more, but if you think hes just too plain mean then I would try to rehome him.